August 2003 Executive Committee Meeting

August 27, 2003
Newton County Library System
Covington, GA

The meeting was called to order by Chairperson Greg Heid at 10:05 AM. He welcomed the new members – Dusty Gres, Steve Schaefer, and Lyn Hopper. Steve Schaefer moved that the minutes of the May 29, 2003 Executive Committee meeting be approved as presented. Susan Cooley seconded the motion and it was passed with a unanimous vote. It was noted that the 2003 Annual Meeting minutes will be presented for approval at the 2004 Annual Meeting next year.

David Singleton reported that there are now 7.8 million items in the PINES database. He reported that the Ocmulgee records have been removed from the database.

• Acquisitions- Julie reported that Sirsi announced some new developments in the Acquisitions module; however, those changes are not expected until 2005. She will continue to monitor developments and make the needs of PINES libraries known.
• Holds
• Randomization-Julie discussed a recently discovered problem with holds. The Sirsi report was not truly randomizing how holds fell despite assurances from Sirsi. This problem was discovered after the PINES Staff noticed and inordinant amount of holds landing on Conyers-Rockdale items. Brad and Jason rewrote the holds report to make holds truly random.
• Workstation Library (patron placed holds)-Julie reported on a recent issue with patron placed holds. A patron can visit a library location outside of their home library and placed holds on items of the regional system they are visiting. This occurs due to a change by Sirsi
• IBistro- Julie presented a handout of comparisons between iBistro and WebCat and discussed the issues with switching to iBistro. While cost is somewhat prohibitive, there are several technical issues that would affect system performance.
• ILS Vendor Meetings and Demos- The PINES Staff met with several ILS vendors as the current contract with Sirsi will end in June 2005. All PINES Staff members have attended these meetings to thoroughly represent the needs of PINES Libraries and to get a complete picture of the capability of each vendor’s product.
• Subcommittee Meetings
• Reports Subcommittee –Katherine met with the reports subcommittee to determine maintenance reports would be useful in maintaining the database by each library system. The subcommittee identified several key reports. Katherine will develop the documentation for these reports and distribute them to all libraries.
• Training Report- Elizabeth reported that use of the online training registration form has been successful and that feedback on the form has been positive. To date, the PINES Staff has trained 202 registrants and completed 42 hours of training.
• Group Order Report –Elizabeth reported that the group order for patron cards and barcode labels has been completed. PINES Libraries received exceptionally good pricing. The next group order will take place in Spring 2004.
• Public Portal- Elizabeth discussed development of the public portal. There have been some problems in making the online tutorial ADA compliant.
• PINES web page consolidation- Elizabeth announced plans to redesign the PINESHelp website in order to consolidate all PINES resources, including the PINES HelpDesk and the various resources developed by Brad and Jason.
• PINES Logo (lands’ end)- Elizabeth reminded those in attendance that Steve Schaefer paid for development of a PINES logo through Lands’ End. If libraries would like to order PINES Logo clothing, they can contact Elizabeth for the logo number and ordering information.
• Overdue Report- Elizabeth presented the overdue report for items that were 90 and 180 days overdue. The overall percentage of the PINES collection that is overdue remains quite low compared to the national average.
• De-duplication project – Brad discussed progress of the deduplication project. While many items have been merged onto a single record, further work is needed. Dr. Lois Upham of the Uncle Remus Regional Library System has been instrumental in the success of this project.
• OCLC deletions
• Patron Records Purge- Brad announced that 46,729 patron records have been purged from the patron database. The total number of patrons remains well over 1 million. Patron records were purged if the record had expired and been inactive for two years. Patron records that had fines on them were not purged.
• Guest login change-Brad announced that when patrons log in using a guest login, the REQUEST button (for holds) will not appear in WebCat. This was disabled because patrons had attempted to placed holds using the guest login.
• Simple Reports – Brad announced the availability of new reports in the web based reporting system.
• Unique & other Library Management Products –Brad announced that the ability to use 3rd party products is no longer an issue for PINES Libraries. If anyone would like to contract with a vendor, they should notify the PINES Staff of their intent so that PINES Staff can provide technical specifications.
• Demo of PINES Standalone 1.0- Brad demonstrated the new PINES Standalone product. This product provides many improvements over the old Standalone software. One of the major improvements is the reduction in errors and the ability to identify them.
• Debut and Demo of Management Interface-Jason demonstrated the new Management Interface. Libraries now have the ability to view and change their closed dates and PINs.

Chairperson Greg Heid presented the following nominees for FY2004 officers:

Susan Sexton-Cooley for Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect and Teresa Haymore for Secretary. Hearing no nominations from the floor, Debbie Manget moved to accept the slate of officers as presented. Diana Tope seconded the motion and it was approved unanimously.

Technology and Communications Committee

Greg Heid is continuing to approach funding sources to provide funds for the purchase of equipment that will enable the webcast of PINES meetings.

The recommendations of the Discussion/Action Items from the subcommittees were presented by Julie Walker.

The Piedmont Regional Library requested a policy name change for the Braselton Library. The current PINES policy name is PIED-WJP. It was proposed that the policy name be changed to PIED-BRL. Teresa Haymore moved to accept the proposed change. Alan Kaye seconded the motion and it was approved unanimously.

Subcommittee Recommendations

1. The subcommittee unanimously supports the idea of removing small bills from items that are marked for DISCARD. Votes for the bill ceiling were evenly split among $1, $2 and $5. The PINES staff recommendation is $1 as a beginning point. Diana Tope moved to accept the recommendation. Susan Sexton-Cooley seconded the motion and it was approved unanimously.
2. The subcommittees do not support the idea of charging patrons postage if they do not pick up holds, recommending instead that offending patrons be handled locally on a case-by-case basis. Susan Sexton-Cooley moved to accept the recommendation. Diana Tope seconded. After discussion, Alan Kaye moved to call the question. There was no second. Cooley withdrew her motion. There was no motion and no action on this recommendation.
3. The subcommittee recommended that while barring should be left to the discretion of PINES Directors, barring should be reserved for very serious offenses. This is in support of current PINES policy. In cases in which the library needs to contact a patron for less serious issues, the NOTES or COMMENTS fields should be used, which will alert circulation staff to the message. There was no action on this recommendation.
4. The subcommittees recommend a vote of “no” to the idea of adding a new home location to identify local history. They recommend using a call number prefix to delineate these items. One suggestion was HR for History Room. Following discussion regarding the already lengthy list of home locations, Dusty Gres moved to add “local history” to the list of home locations. Debbie Manget seconded. The vote was one (1) “yes” and seven (7) “no”. The motion failed.
5. The subcommittees support the creation of a single new item type: FACILITY AV. After discussion and additional information provided by Jim Cooper, there was no action taken on this recommendation.
6. The subcommittees do not support the creation of two new proposed item types: VIDEO-NOHOLD and DVD-NOHOLD, feeling that they run contrary to the spirit of PINES lending. There was one dissenting vote from the subcommittees. Lyn Hopper moved to accept the recommendation that these item types should not be created. Alan Kaye seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Other Discussion

• Diana Tope voiced a concern over the Annual Report data requirements for spoken word and music audiotapes and CDs. Steve Schaefer made a motion to ask PINES staff to confer with the GPLS Annual Report writer/author to require only the data that can be extracted from PINES reports. Dusty Gres seconded and the motion passed.
• Susie Stewart also noted that PINES reports should be able to generate information that is required in the Georgia Public Library Standards.
• Greg Heid appointed Dusty Gres as Parliamentarian.
• Greg Heid’s staff members Leslie St. John and Isaac Asante presented a new off-site mobile PINES version of Workflows and WebCat. This is a laptop/wireless system that was funded by Newton County Library, but has the potential to be funded by e-rate.

Having no further business, Steve Schaefer moved to adjourn the meeting. Dusty Gres seconded. Meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,
Teresa P. Haymore
Secretary-PINES Executive Committee